Readline Emacs Editing Mode Cheat Sheet Default Keyboard Shortcuts for Bash Shortcut Function Name Description Commands for Moving: C-a beginning-of-line Move to the beginning of line. C-e end-of-line Move to the end of line. C-f forward-char Move forward a character. C-b backward-char Move back a character. M-f forward-word Move forward a word. M-b backward-word Move backward a word. C-l clear-screen Clear the screen leaving the current line at the top of the screen. (unbound) redraw-current-line Refresh the current line. Commands for Changing Text: C-d delete-char Delete one character at point. Rubout backward-delete-char Delete one character backward. C-q or C-v quoted-insert Quoted insert. M-TAB or M-C-i tab-insert Insert a tab character. a, b, A, 1, !, ... self-insert Insert the character typed. C-t transpose-chars Exchange the char before cursor with the character at cursor. M-t transpose-words Exchange the word before cursor with the word at cursor. M-u upcase-word Uppercase the current (or following) word. M-l downcase-word Lowercase the current (or following) word. M-c capitalize-word Capitalize the current (or following) word. (unbound) overwrite-mode Toggle overwrite mode. Killing and Yanking: C-k kill-line Kill the text from point to the end of the line. C-x Rubout backward-kill-line Kill backward to the beginning of the line. C-u unix-line-discard Kill backward from point to the beginning of the line. M-d kill-word Kill from point to the end of the current word. M-Rubout backward-kill-word Kill the word behind point. C-w unix-word-rubout Kill the word behind point, using white space as a word boundary. M-n delete-horizontal-space Delete all spaces and tabs around point. C-y yank Yank the top of the kill ring into the buffer at point. M-y yank-pop Rotate the kill ring, and yank the new top. (unbound) kill-whole-line Kill all characters on the current line. (unbound) kill-region Kill the text between the point and mark. (unbound) copy-region-as-kill Copy the text in the region to the kill buffer. (unbound) copy-backward-word Copy the word before point to the kill buffer. (unbound) copy-forward-word Copy the word following point to the kill buffer. Keyboard Macros: C-x ( start-kbd-macro Begin saving the chars typed into the current keyboard macro. C-x ) end-kbd-macro End saving the chars typed into the current keyboard macro. C-x e call-last-kbd-macro Re-execute the last keyboard macro defined. A cheat sheet by Peteris Krumins ([email protected]), 2007. http://www.catonmat.net - good coders code, great reuse Released under GNU Free Document License. Shortcut Function Name Description Commands for Manipulating the History: Return accept-line Accept the line regardless of where the cursor is. C-p previous-history Fetch the previous command from the history list. C-n next-history Fetch the next command from the history list. M-< beginning-of-history Move to the first line in the history. M-> end-of-history Move to the end of the input history (current line). C-r reverse-search-history Search backward starting at the current line (incremental). C-s forward-search-history Search forward starting at the current line (incremental). M-p non-incremental-reverse- Search backward using non-incremental search. search-history M-n non-incremental-forward- Search forward using non-incremental search. search-history M-C-y yank-nth-arg Insert the n-th argument to the previous command at point. M-. or M- yank-last-arg Insert the last argument to the previous command. (unbound) history-search-backward Search forward for a string between start of line and point. (unbound) history-search-forward Search backward for a string between start of line and point. Completing: TAB complete Attempt to perform completion on the text before point. M-? possible-completions List the possible completions of the text before point. M-* insert-completions Insert all completions of the text before point generated by possible-completions. (unbound) menu-complete Similar to complete but replaces the word with the first match. (unbound) delete-char-or-list Deletes the car if not at the beginning of line or acts like possible- completions at the end of the line. Miscellaneous: C-x C-r re-read-init-file Read and execute the contents of inputrc file. C-g abort Abort the current editing command and ring the terminal's bell. M-a, M-b, M-x, ... do-uppercase-version If the metafield char x is lowercase, run the command that is bound to uppercase char. ESC prefix-meta Metafy the next character typed. For example, ESC-p is equiv- alent to Meta-p. C- or C-x C-u undo Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line. M-r revert-line Undo all changes made to this line. M-& tilde-expand Perform tilde expansion on the current word. C-@ or M-<space> set-mark Set the mark to the point. C-x C-x exchange-point-and-mark Swap the point with the mark. C-] character-search Move to the next occurance of current character under cursor. M-C-] character-search- Move to the previous occurrence of current character under cursor. backward M-# insert-comment Without argument line is commented, with argument uncom- mented (if it was commented). C-e emacs-editing-mode When in vi mode, switch to emacs mode. M-C-j vi-editing-mode When in emacs mode, switch to vi mode. M-0, M-1, ..., M{ digit-argument Specify the digit to the argument. M{ starts a negative argument. (unbound) dump-functions Print all of the functions and their key bindings. (unbound) dump-variables Print all of the settable variables and their values. (unbound) dump-macros Print all of the key sequences bound to macros. (unbound) universal-argument Either sets argument or multiplies the current argument by 4. A cheat sheet by Peteris Krumins ([email protected]), 2007. http://www.catonmat.net - good coders code, great reuse.